At the risk of devolving to the status of "bad blogger," I thought I'd save my status by poking in here briefly to note my recent dearth of blogging. Two faults for this. One, the usual ... work. Two, not-so-usual ... picked up a good book to pick apart at the other blog.

One sidenote from Bill Bishop's "The Big Sort" that's relevant here is this. The central premise of the book is that we are all "sorting" ourselves into like-minded communities that think alike, look alike, and vote alike. While I see a lot of merit in some of the supporting points Bishop makes in the book, I disagree pretty strongly with his overall premise. Where it gets pertinent to this blog is that the examples he offers in a chapter on religion use rather selective examples to prove his point. Namely, he offers a certain Houston church that is large, demographically homogeneous, and prototypically Republican-leaning. That church, of course, is not Lakewood ... which is large, demographically all over the map, and who's pastor notably keeps politics off the pulpit in recognition that the congregation is politically diverse.

And, of course, Lakewood doesn't fit into the overall narrative that we're all sorting outselves into the communities that Bishop describes. There's a point to be made about whether Lakewood is the exception or the trend, I realize. But even if it's an outlier, it's a notable one that doesn't even get mentioned in the book as such.

There is some interesting background on the church-growth movement and some of the parallel writing for overseas missionaries. I may or may not get to that topic as I try and catch up a bit on some of the stuff I've missed in the past two weeks with this blog. For now, just accept my humble apologies for the recent quietude. The usual assortment of rattle and hum that I normally offer will likely pick up within days.

Among other items on the agenda ... I'm in need of a good book. The quest never ends.